Russia at war 1941-1945

On the one hand, Russia was a devastatedx, almost a ruined, country, with a formidable task of economic reconstruction ahead of her. But on the other hand, she was sitting on top of the world, having won the greatest war in her history. The future seemed bright as never before. Some soldiers were openly saying: "But for Britain and America, the whole of Europe would be ours." This "revolutionary romanticism" was not widespread, still less officially approved, but it had a tiny little corner in many people's hearts. The future seemed pregnant with all kinds of exciting possibilities. A revolutionary Europe to a few

—a happy, prosperous Russia to most. Among many of those who now dreamed of such

a happy Russia there also existed the idea that the survival of the Big-Three alliance after the war would, somehow, tend to liberalise the Soviet régime (as, in some respects, it had already done during the war). Many illusions (in either direction) were to be destroyed only a few months later, with the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima...

Chapter III - JUNE, 1945: BERLIN UNDER THE RUSSIANS

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This was very unlike Berlin. There were jasmin bushes round the villa, the garden was full of strong sweet scents, birds were twittering in the trees, and, at the end of the green, sunny alley, the water of the Wannsee was bright blue. "They lived well, the parasites,"

said the Russian lad, a sentry outside the villa. He was nineteen or twenty, with a little down on his chin, rosy cheeks and laughing blue eyes. On his khaki shirt he wore the Stalingrad Medal and the Bravery Medal. "They lived well, the parasites," he repeated.

"Great big farms in East Prussia, and pretty posh houses in the towns that hadn't been burned out or bombed to hell. And look at these datchas here! Why did these people who were living so well have to invade us?"

This was one of the most common thoughts of Red Army soldiers during that first

summer in Germany. They were not impressed by the vestiges of "Western" prosperity, but simply angered at the thought that these "rich" Germans should have wanted to conquer Russia.

"And to think of all our fellows they killed," he went on. "It was tough just outside Berlin. Some of the German youngsters were quite crazy—attacked our tanks with their faustpatronen; knocked out quite a few that way. Some of the German girls threw hand grenades out of windows. However, they are all very meek and quiet now. Some of the

Germans are really not too bad. They're scared, of course; that's why they are so polite.

But I lost a lot of comrades on the way here, and one could never be sure that one would get to Berlin alive. But now I am having a good time. Four of us have a motor-boat and we go out on it at night on the lake. There are a lot of lakes here, all strung together—one can go in the boat for miles. Pretty country round here, don't you think? Now the

Germans aren't allowed to come to this place. Wendenschloss it's called."

The "parasite" to whom the villa belonged must have been quite a big local shot in the Nazi Party. In my bedroom there were still some German books—mostly Party literature

— Mein Kampf, and a volume of Goering speeches, and a biography of Goering, full of idyllic pictures of the brute. Each volume was a presentation copy from the local Party committee.

Wendenschloss was, indeed, roped off from the rest of Berlin. Marshal Zhukov was

living in a large villa beside the lake; and in the Yacht Club a "great inter-Allied ceremony" (as the newspapers called it) took place on June 5. Zhukov, Eisenhower, Montgomery and Delattre de Tassigny, sat round a large green table and signed the Four-Power Declaration on the defeat of Germany, the assumption by the Four Powers of the supreme rule over Germany and the establishment of a Control Council.

It was a somewhat disorderly affair. Montgomery arrived at the airport three hours later than the Russians had expected him. There was much unpleasant whispering and hissing:

"The Russians want to grab as much as they can."

[The Western Allies were not at all pleased to have to evacuate very shortly a large territory, including Leipzig, and to hand it to the Russians in accordance with the zonal boundaries previously agreed to. Churchill was much opposed to this evacuation without getting anything in return. He was very angry about the fait accompli of the Oder-Neisse Line.]

Although Zhukov was expecting all the signatories to stay for his elaborately-prepared dinner, both Eisenhower and Montgomery excused themselves, and only the French

stayed on—the British and Americans leaving almost immediately after the signing

ceremony. Why Montgomery had brought ninety-seven people with him nobody could

make out. " Il y a un froid très net," the French at Wendenschloss remarked. Anyway, the French stayed on for the banquet, and Vyshinsky, Zhukov's political adviser, made a